It’s been a gift factory at my house for some weeks now. Sewing, crochet and knitting. It hardly seems like Christmas without snow on the ground, but I’ve been a little elf nonetheless. The brief snow we had last week was perfectly timed with our scheduled visit to Country Lights Festival. I think we may have been some of the only visitors whose carriage ride included snowy landscapes. It was pretty magical and heart warming.
This year, Ava decided to build a sparkly “Dory” fish. Last year she made a sweet little rocking horse. It is always so fun to watch her take pride in her elf work. She naturally takes to creative work like bees to honey. We tried a new tree farm this year and they had exactly ONE tree for us to choose from. Luckily, I was in LOVE. I’m pretty sure we found the world’s most perfectly plump white pine. I’ve got a gaping grin just thinking of it. I couldn’t stop giggling as the dignified tree farm guy prepared it to ride home with us.
It is SO plump in fact, that we are going to have to get more lights this year and perhaps some garland to do it up. I’m thinking I will add a bunch on Christmas Eve around the house. We are going to take Ava’s doorknob cover off and tell her she can wake us in the morning to see if Santa came. She told me she wants to sleep on the couch. She REALLY wants to open the presents under the tree.
It helps that now she knows that we can’t open gifts until the morning she wakes up with her Christmas pajamas on.
For this set, I used Oliver + S’s Sleepover Pajama pattern. I am so happy with how these turned out! There is something magical about Oliver + S patterns. Stitching and turning out the accent pieces on the garment is sort of like watching a butterfly emerge from a cocoon. When it begins to look like a finished outfit and the hems are impeccably clean, you really start to feel the magic of creation.
I highly recommend buying the paper pattern if you are interested in making these pajamas. I purchased a digital copy and I have to say that printing and assembling 8.5 x11 pattern pieces is quite an undertaking. This project had so many pieces. Not quite the 16 for the Penguin Backpack, but 10 is still a lot to cut out. Once that is done, the pants come together fairly quickly. The top is a bit more involved, but the instructions are SO detailed and easy to execute. The way that the facing on the neck/button placket and the pockets is finished is absolutely brilliant.
Ava is generally off the charts for her age and wears a 5T in most things these days. I made these pjs in 5T and the pattern appears to be sized very generously. Not a bad thing for pajamas, I happen to think. The cuff on the pants is also designed to accommodate vertical growth. Right now, these pants are about an inch long on Ava and next year I will be able to just snip the tacking stitches on the cuffs and add an extra 2 inches. That makes these a very worthwhile investment of my time and money. Cozy PJs that will last thru 2 winters? Yes yes! Further, these pajamas are so well made that they will be handed down at least 1 or 2 more times to another sweet little one.
The main fabric for these is a snuggle flannel from JoAnn’s. I used a polka dot calico cotton for the accents and finished it with some white suspender buttons. As I was stitching them yesterday, I was thinking about potentially sneaking in and putting little mini candy canes in those sweet little polka dotty pockets some day. Ava still loves loves loves pockets. Convenient, fun, and very good at toting Abominable Snowmen around in winter
I added a little Christmas tree “15” tag to the pants, folded and tied them with a little bow of ribbon to place them under the tree, where they will await little hands on Thursday night. My heart sings every time I look under there and spot these polka puppies.
All in all, these were very straightforward and really fun to see come together over the course of several late nights watching Christmas movies. I’ve expressed my affection for Oliver + S patterns so many times, but I have to say that the instructions for the Sleepover Pajamas are perfectly and expertly written. There’s so many added tips and pieces of advice to go along with the basic instructions. I surely appreciated Liesl’s expertise around 3 am a few times this week when my judgement was getting a little foggy and I really needed some hand holding thru the details :). I’m hoping these become an annual tradition – the pajamas, not the late nights!
We sure wish you a Merry Christmas. Or as Ava says, have a “hungry, jolly Christmas. It’s the best time of the year.”
Christmas with a 3 year old. Sigh. Truly magical. Friday is undoubtedly going to be one of my favorite days in life. A day I will wish to last forever.
Walking Whimsy 